RAVEN MACK is a mystic poet-philosopher-artist of the Greater Appalachian unorthodox tradition. He does have an amazing PATREON, but also *normal* ARTIST WEBSITE too.

Monday, March 1

(7s) Longest Serving U.S. Senators #6 - Senator Max Sieben Baucus (Democratic Earl of Montana)


In a state with a flourishing militant libertarian movement, it seems very status quo that the senior Senator would be a kid born to a wealthy ranching family who had a leisurely tour of multiple colleges full of fraternity life, clocked himself a economics degree and some post-graduate lawyer ball papers. We can't escape the wealthy rule. Baucus actually was swored in as Montana Senator on December 15, 1978, although he was also a Representative to Congress from there beforehand since January 3, 1975. And the big homey Max Sieben Baucus of Helena, Montana, by way of Washington D.C. the past 30-plus years is a major player in the sham of a public health care debate going on in the stupid Congress. As a proudly uninsured American, who would prefer to live a healthy lifestyle and use my meager income to buy the herbs and spices necessary to maintain this 225 pound alcohol fueled mayhem machine at its optimum operating styles, the last thing I want is a bunch of rich fuckers telling me that I have to be insured, and if I'm not then I have to pay a fee (times 5 for my family) because in order to offer health care to everybody they have to make sure everybody is paying insurance premiums to insurance companies so that it is profitable enough to cover everybody. What the fuck kind of reasoning is this? Many of those Montana Freemen style people believe our government is an evil entity, out to oppress; I do not believe that. We have an immensely bureaucratic government that turns slower than a oil tanker, yet it wants to go in five different directions at once. So basically you have this oil tanker of an entity, not really moving anywhere, and everybody at work on the ship (government employees) are still getting paid, even though they're not really able to do anything for most of the time they are at work, or they have to fill out 29 different pieces of paperwork to get started. Meanwhile, there is a giant room (aka Washington) where roughly 500 lieutenants are arguing about which direction is best, completely oblivious to the advice of the actual people standing outside on the deck going, "Hey, look, we keep bumping against all these rocks and shit. One of them is probably going to fuck us up severely at some point." So it's not so much an evil incarnate government enforced by jack-booted thugs as it is an immensely unproductive government run by completely out-of-touch wealthy elite fuckers whose idea of the real world is very unreal and fantastical to most of us folks.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

All bureaucracies (public or private) should constantly strive to be efficient and responsive to their citizens or clients. In the case of government services, it would be impossible to deliver the numerous services demanded by citizens (like public libraries) without some sort of bureaucracy. Just as it would be impossible access many of the private/for-profit services you enjoy without corporate bureaucracy. Through the years, I have found for-profit bureaucracies to be sometimes more cumbersome and unresponsive than government bureaucracies – though generally most Americans have a bias favoring all things corporate and money-making. Ironically, my private health insurance (Anthem) is probably one of the most cumbersome and bureaucratic organizations that I have ever had the experience to deal with; whereas my parents’ health providers: the “VA” and Medicare appear to be very straightforward and uncomplicated to access.

I have to agree, eating healthy and living a healthy lifestyle is a great way to keep from having to go to the Doctor – and therefore avoid needing health insurance. Regardless if you have insurance or not, living healthy is probably a good idea! Still, the day might come where avoiding the doctor/hospital might not be an option. In that case what would you do? How about if your child needed serious medical attention? This very scenario is something that about ¼ of the population of the United States deals with on a regular basis….

As I see it, the biggest problem/obstacle to health care reform is this: even modest reforms to our current system could jeopardize America’s unquestionable status as the world’s most PROFITABLE healthcare systems. And this is why the health care debate has become pure demagoguery, often boiled-down to simple-to-sell talking points (as you appear to have fell victim too) in order to protect the status quo in the name of profit, not actually finding reasonable solutions. Because I too believe the status quo will “win out” in the end I see this in the future: continued increases in the number of uninsured, higher premiums for those who have insurance and significantly higher cost for all health services. So you have a point, why does this typed of system need reform? The current system is ensuring America status as the next Mexico…

Raven Mack said...

I'm not against health care reform, I'm just against the bullshit they're pretending is reform when all it is more of a moneygrab for health insurance companies, even though republicrats would have you believe it's some sort of socialism.
If anything major happens, fuck it I'll figure that out when I get there. Ideally I think a proper govt would insure this type of shit for all its citizens, including health care, a good education, the arts, military, everything in balance. But this govt is so out of balance and embedded in its nonsense that I'd be shocked if it could reform the paint scheme inside the Capitol Building much less something grandiose like health care.
And doesn't Max Baucus need some health care in that picture? I thought somebody had photoshopped him to look like a zombie, but apparently he had a boo-boo during a marathon.